9.02.2011

OK, so Fridays are serious business at Little A's school (and consequentially, for Little A as well). They are spirit days and if you wear red or a viking shirt (or both!) you get a treat and earn points for your class. The class that gets the most points wins the "Viking" to keep in their class. At the end of the semester, if your class wins the "Viking" to most number of times, your class wins a class prize. And, more importantly to Little A, you get a treat every Friday if you show up to school sporting your school pride.
At back to school night they had t-shirts to purchase if you so desired. I took a look. They were nice and all...but, if I am my mother's daughter*, I was pretty sure I wanted to make my own version (I mean we're talking about a viking graphic here! Talk about a cool subject matter!).

So we ran out to Target and got the only red blank t-shirt we could find. It was a bit short (Little O will be sporting this pretty soon I'm sure) but it was all we could find as we were up against a clock. I drew a quick image of a viking on freezer paper, cut out the stencil and ironed it on. I've done a number of freezer paper stencils before but never with a white paint on a red cotton fabric. Let me just tell you, you will have to make several applications of the white paint. We were in "pink" territory for sometime and I was really starting to get worried. But persevere, because it does eventually whiten up. (I'm just pretty sure that we'll never be able to wash the thing as it will most likely end up being too small and I'm afraid Monsieur Viking will be pink all over again...). And if you want to get a bit of beard texture, like mine, just take your sponge brush, hold it upright, and stroke the paint back and forth across the stencil until you are satisfied with the results.
So needless to say, when Little A woke up this morning to discover his newly decked out Viking shirt, he was over the moon (and can I just share that he included a plug for spirit Fridays in his Thursday night prayers? So I'm guessing that this is pretty important for the little guy).

And because vikings are just overall totally cool (whether or not they are your school mascot), I've offered the graphic for you to download and use as a stencil as well. Just click on or copy and paste this link into another browser and your download should begin: files.me.com/merrileel/h2j4mz. If you need a freezer paper stencil refresher, you can take a look at this one.

*and if you are wondering about the "I am my mother's daughter" comment, I'll share. While growing up my mother would never purchase the school, dance, drama, you name it, required attire. She would simply look at what they were offering and make her own (typically an exact replica for much less $). It drove us crazy as kids (we wanted store bought over handmade every time) but now that I'm grown, I admire her gumption and skills to be able to do so. And in case you are wondering, my viking is not an exact replica (it's an original design) but I felt that it still fit within the spirit day requirements.

And if you are wondering about Little A's first day of school, it went smashingly well! I was so proud of the little guy. So thanks for all you well wishes!